I have a job that also affords me a lot of spare time in my schedule and I'm looking to use that time to begin/continue/grow a real estate portfolio.

At that time, there were public records showing missed payments and multiple distressed properties, not to mention the overall struggles of the student housing market.Even the underlying investment showed major red flags in the PPM which she never disclosed or mentioned to me.

I guess it can save you some time managing, for example one tax bill, one insurance bill. 

Here are a few avenues folks often explore in times like this:You are already on this path - Owner Financing: It's great that the seller is willing to finance a portion of the deal.

Although I have a hard time believing his proposal would include investors.  

First time buyer loan with 11% down.

I'm totally with you on using real estate to give yourself the freedom to travel :) We love Birmingham as a market - we analyze thousands of on-market properties every day for investors around the country (also in the pursuit of giving time back!)

That group is made to help first time investors build systems to get off the ground.

It doesn’t make sense to go through the fundraising process each time since the focus should be on trying to swallow up these deals in short order. 

There are ways of buying a property to get around seasoning time requirements.